"The original bad boy never cares about anyone but himself. He has no reason to."
Chapter 3| Wet Thy Principal
I remain seated and wait for the dismissal bell.
The side of my head hurts beyond anything one can imagine and I'm tempted to march up to the lazy bum in the hallway and give him a swift punch to his perfectly straight nose. While the students attend their classes, Arsen goofs around with his "friends" in the hallways promoting disturbance in the school. Like I said before, the principal falls lenient on him after the fire episode.
Glancing around, I sigh in frustration because neither Isa nor Danie have AP Calculus with me.
They hate math.
Ben can't come back to school for another week. Therefore, I'm alone in many of my classes. It's hard work trying to look busy while everyone else has their friends around. As soon the bell roars overhead, I rush out.
Must. Beat. Lunch. Traffic.
Unfortunately during my jogging downstairs, someone blocks my path. My body jerks to the side by a strong hand gripping my elbow. Instantly, my eyes snap to meet an emotionless face. He opens the door that leads to the school courtyard and shoves me out, much against my protests. Did he not understand the fact that I didn't want to see his face? A while ago, I may have considered approaching him since we were close friends, at one point.
After last week's incidents, no thank you.
Only I know how I convinced my parents about tripping and falling down on a rock to receive such an injury to my head.
"What do you want?" I ask irritated.
Without responding, his hand trails up to my face and touch my jaw. My breath hitches as I feel tiny tingles on my skin. He turns my face and examines the side of my head he punched. I can clearly make out the features of his face with the strong and defined jaw line. His cheeks are slightly pink from the cool autumn weather. On his forehead, I spot a thin scar slightly hidden under his dark hair.
Realizing his useless intention to check my injury, I strike his hand away.
"Not too bad," he concludes before meeting my eyes. "Your head, I mean. Didn't even need any stitches."
"Gee thanks," I reply sarcastically.
"Look . . . er--"
"Valerie Cruz," I introduce, giving him a dirty look. In all these years, he forgot my name? Arsen's jaw hardens and he runs a hand through his hair. I don't understand the actions.
"I know," he says in a low voice. Did he really? "Never mind." Just like that, I don't get to get to hear whatever he was going to say earlier. He steps closer to me with me reciprocating by stepping back. Sadly, I hit a bench and lose my balance, falling hard on the seat. My butt hurt. Arsen shakes his head at my clumsiness and bends down eye-level. "I brought you here to give you my first and last warning; Don't ever try to meddle in something you'll regret. What happened here," the tips of his fingers tracing my hurt temple, "can most definitely happen again."
My heavy breathing is a result of the lack of space I'm allowed to breathe in.
Although I flinch at his words, an exhilarating feeling course through me.
His proximity always had an effect on me. Ever since the day his family moved in next to my house, we became great friends. Almost inseparable. We even made our own vows to each which I'm sure he's long since forgotten.
One accident changes people forever.
People and relationships.
"Why did you get into all this mess, Arsen?" I inquire.
He blinks back at me, clearly astonished by my reprisal.
"I'm sure you can answer that yourself," he says, his hands clenching. I shake my head, but he completely neglects my concern. "Just keep what I told you in mind." Pivoting on his heels, he walks towards the door we entered from. I stand back up quickly.
"What if I don't?" I yell behind him.
He hardly glances over his shoulder, though the sound of his unamused chuckle isn't hard to miss.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Who's Skylar Johnson?" I ask in haste. The dead man left a job for me which I want to fulfill. Not everyone in this world is cruel and heartless. Arsen moves around, so that he faces me.
"Why?"
"Reasons," I shrug.
"Let me guess, poor dear Lionell told you a message to give to her," he mocks. Biting my lip, I say nothing. Apparently, the dead man's name is Lionell. "Clichéd story to learn from," Arsen resumes. He adjusts his hands in his jacket pockets and leans against the door. "Lionell fell in love with a normal human and decided to leave our gang. Mind you, we don't even have that many members and he thought he could run away." He shakes his head in pity.
"Gang?" I gulp.
"The people who jumped him that day," he clarifies. "Yeah, if he'd understood sooner that one does not just convert to these average people, he might've lived. The stupid chic disappeared just after his death, too."
Well, that helps so much.
That man was murdered because he fell in love and wanted to live a normal life.
"O--okay," I choke out.
He smirks and leaves me without another word. He knows how terrified I'm of anything dangerous, yet he scared me. Understanding the gravity of Arsen's business, I finalize never travelling in crowd-less places alone. The city's known for being dangerous. Composing myself, I leave the courtyard and enter the building again. The cafeteria is located in the basement, so the flight downstairs from the first floor isn't too long.
Unluckily, I cross a couple passionately making out in one corner.
When I see Arsen, my disgust morphs into disappointment.
What happened to the sweet boy who once told me, "I don't think there's another girl I wanna kiss except you"? I suppose that boy died along with his parents when their house burned down.
My mood drops down incredibly, so I take a seat next to Isa and Danie without lunch. They ask about what happened and I slowly inform them about Math League, Science Olympiad, etc. My friends didn't need to be pushed into danger.
Ben and I are enough.
"Dude, you know how we have our free period in the lunch block?" Isa speaks. Danie and I nod. "Well, our business teacher wants us to take care of his Wet Thy Principal tomorrow. They're gonna make students pay to throw three water balloons at Princi and maybe his ex-girlfriend."
We laugh.
The Principal's girlfriend is none other than the head lunch lady. Their affair has been going on since our Freshman year. He was even going to propose her, if only that fire hadn't happened and he hadn't blamed the lunch staff for it. Consequently, his wedding bells weren't ringing anytime soon.
"Watch all the troublemakers take revenge tomorrow." I chuckle.
Undoubtedly, Arsen will be one of those students.
"Man, Ben is gonna miss everything," Danie says downcast.
Isa and I share a knowing look. "Missing him?" I ask. Danie nods. "Isa and I can set you on a date--"
"How does Olive Garden sound--" Isa barges in.
"No! My parents own a restaurant too, you know?" I butt in, offended. "We don't mind more customers. In fact, we'll give you a discount for being a friend." Isa gives me a high-five.
Danie rolls her eyes and give us a stiff glare.
"Ben and I are friends. He's not my type," she says firmly.
"We don't approve of your type," Isa responds. "Your type is people like Arsen Frasier. That guy's gonna get held back like five times and we don't want you to accompany him during those years." Although a small part of me pities the true words of Isa, I still laugh. Danie's not thrilled by that prediction.
"I might date a jock, but not Frasier," she defends herself. "He's a manwhore. Ain't nobody got time for him."
Isa and Danie continue criticizing Arsen with facts I can't deny. After the courtyard talk, I have first-handed experience with his personality. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. In fact, he condemns of Lionell falling for a simple person like me. What if he falls for a normal person? In all those hookups, he ought to fall in love. Obviously, I fell out of eligibility for that a long while ago.
How much I wish things can go back to how they were before!
Nevertheless, I study the students around me.
Everyone's in their own cliques--nerds, jocks, etc. Arsen has his own clique called the ruthless rebels. As if he senses me watching him, his cold eyes meet mine across the two tables separating us. A blond girl with blue highlights mutters something in his ears, diverting his attention to her. The sad part of it all is that this girl is different from the one he made out with in the stairway earlier.
I look away, not interested in his life.
The only thing I have to look forward to is Wet Thy Principal, tomorrow.
And find information regarding Skylar Johnson.
For that, I have to meet Arsen once again.